/*
 * Copyright 2010-2012 Susanta Tewari. <freecode4susant@users.sourceforge.net>
 *
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */

package bd.org.apache.commons.math.stat.descriptive;

/**
 * Base interface implemented by all statistics.
 *
 * @version $Id: UnivariateStatistic.java 1244107 2012-02-14 16:17:55Z erans $
 */
public interface UnivariateStatistic {

    /**
     * Returns the result of evaluating the statistic over the input array.
     *
     * @param values input array
     * @return the value of the statistic applied to the input array
     */
    double evaluate(double[] values);


    /**
     * Returns the result of evaluating the statistic over the specified entries
     * in the input array.
     *
     * @param values the input array
     * @param begin the index of the first element to include
     * @param length the number of elements to include
     * @return the value of the statistic applied to the included array entries
     */
    double evaluate(double[] values, int begin, int length);


    /**
     * Returns a copy of the statistic with the same internal state.
     *
     * @return a copy of the statistic
     */
    UnivariateStatistic copy();
}
